angelia albao,
Opinion: On Fear-mongering the Measles Vaccine
According to Mayo Clinic and the World Health Organization (WHO), measles is a “highly contagious” infection in the skin that may occur during early childhood. It is caused by a virus and spreads through air and physical contact. DOH Assistant Secretary Eric Tayag added that in order to prevent the disease,"Bakuna lang po talaga ang magiging pinakamainam…” [Vaccine will be the only effective way…]
Despite the development and access of worldwide vaccine (usually accompanied with mumps and/or rubella vaccine) over the past years, there have been more than twenty million casualties for the last seventeen years. Most victims have either found the vaccine expensive or refused to take the vaccine of their own volition.
For instance, in a report by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) about the measles outbreak in California during the 1990s, most infants whose parents had low income were not able to receive vaccination. The organization also added that those families were “disappointed” by the immunization campaigns by the United States during that time.
A similar situation is currently taking place in the Philippines, where a measles epidemic broke out approximately a month ago. As the weeks went on, the number of affected cities around the country has increased, so has the number of cases of measles. In fact, according to Philippine Star, more than 4,000 (a 122% increase compared to last year) people in nine regions have been infected by the highly-contagious disease as of February 11. The next day, Rappler confirmed that at least 70 perished.
It can be said that the measles outbreak is caused by the lack of free immunization. Department of Health (DOH) Secretary Francisco Duque III testified to this as he said, “the majority should be given access to free vaccinations in public health centers”. However, health experts and lawmakers observe that, similar to the Californian epidemic, citizens’ skepticism of the vaccine’s effectivity seems to outweigh the problem regarding access to the medicine.
According to a recent statement of UNICEF, there has been a 15% decrease in the number of Filipinos receiving measles vaccine. Representative Lotta Sylwander stated that “parents were doubtful of the effectivity of the vaccine.” Furthermore, Interior Secretary Eduardo Año added, “...[takot] magpa-immunize ang mga magulang [ng] mga anak nila.” [...parents are afraid to have their children take the shot.] Thus, public fear-mongering is the main reason behind the measles outbreak, albeit apparent.
According to Sarah Bosely, health editor of The Guardian, this fear-mongering spreads through fake news about the disease in social media, propaganda casting doubt to the medical industry, and other conspiracies. These have been evident in the skyrocketing of measles cases in Europe and the United States for the last decade; the WHO attested that due to such misinformation, there had been a 30% increase in the number of measles cases worldwide.
The Philippines is no exception to this pandemic. In fact, there were 58,000 cases and 110 deaths in 2014 due to measles. The WHO also confirmed that the main cause of this event rooted back to the epidemic in California. Although the number of victims had decreased for the next three years, the fear-mongering aggravated once again when the Dengvaxia controversy happened.
The Philippines was one of the first four countries to approve the use of the world’s first dengue vaccine. It was just fresh out of its trial stage and thus unproven safe for a long time. However, the government immediately shelled out P3.5 billion to procure the vaccine and implement a mass vaccination program for Dengvaxia.
Shortly after, Sanofi Pasteur, the manufacturer of the vaccine, released findings that the vaccine must only be administered to previous dengue patients. To those who have not been exposed to the virus previously, they should not have the shot as it could lead to more severe cases of dengue.
Due to this, the Dengvaxia immunization program in the country was halted. However, at this point, it was already too late. Dengvaxia had already been administered to more than 837, 000 school children in the Philippines.
Therefore, procuring vaccines is not something to be rushed because these will be administered to the population, with emphasis to children. Had the government been more cautious with buying vaccines, they should have not immediately procured a new vaccine like Dengvaxia, whose safety, again, has not yet been validated.
Due to the Dengvaxia incident, confidence in vaccines started to drop. The Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) Chief, Persida Acosta, is being blamed of public fear-mongering because she has actively spoken against the Dengvaxia vaccine. The media is also being blamed for giving Acosta airtime.
Going back to the issue behind the measles outbreak, is this epidemic, then, her fault due to “public fear-mongering”?
Not exactly. Acosta, as an attorney for the masses, only tried to defend the side of the families of the patients who died allegedly due to getting vaccinated with Dengvaxia. She cannot be blamed for trying to bring justice to the grieving families and trying to prevent more people from suffering the same fate. Acosta, as well as the news coverages, might have been too emphatic. However, her contentions are not without basis.
What then is to blame?
The recent drop in vaccine confidence is not due to public fear-mongering. While it may be because of the uproarious Dengvaxia problem, the root cause is rather the lapses in the actions taken by the government as mentioned in the procurement of Dengvaxia.
In order to stop this fear-mongering and regain the public’s confidence in vaccines, it is up to the government officials to bounce back from their mistakes and uphold transparency in their decision-making. That is, they should educate the public about the purpose of the vaccine and address their doubts. In addition, they should inform them of other vaccines that have been long proven safe and effective.
If they do so, people will no longer harbor anti-vaccination sentiments and thus be willing to take the measles vaccine. That will be the key to prevent the disease itself. //by Angelia Albao and James Tolosa
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